Around The World With Artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project

Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago. Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes.

It's a giant beach ball...it's a weather balloon...it's RedBall. We feel the Superman allusion is warranted, as RedBall, a globe-spanning public art project by New York-based artist Kurt Perschke, maintains something of a superhuman presence. The first RebBall installation took place in St. Louis back in 2001 as a commission from Arts in Transit. With the money from that commission, Perschke took it to Barcelona. Sydney soon beckoned, and pretty soon it RedBall was rolling along, inflating its way into the hearts, imaginations and urban spaces of cities ranging from Chicago and Toronto to Taipei and Abu Dhabi.

For Perschke its not so much about the 15-foot inflatable ball itself, but the potential it represents. "The true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it," he explains. "It opens a doorway to imagine what if?" Angela Melkisethian offers a similar take in Sculpture magazine: "RedBall's occupation of the spaces that are taken for granted briefly foregrounds the invisible backdrop of urban life. What used to be neglected space becomes a realm of possibilities."

RedBall's next destination is the United Kingdom, where it will tour throughout June. We'd love to experience its spherical red goodness right here in Brooklyn. It would fit in great alongside the epic work that's emerged from 3rd Ward's own Inflatable Sculpture classes.

Meanwhile, here's more from Perschke on RedBall:

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries // NYCDOT's Barrier Beautification Program Wants Artists to Add Some Color To City Streets

"Planes A-Way" by Almond Zigmond - 21st Williamsburg St W between Kent and Flushing Aves, Brooklyn - alll photos via nycstreets

While our streets could definitely stand to benefit from the rogue creative touch of a guerilla gardener like Steven Wheen, NYCDOT is also trying to add a little more color to some of the city's many swathes of asphault and concrete. 

In 2010, as part of its Urban Art intitative, NYCDOT launched the Barrier Beautification program in collaboration with volunteer organization New York Cares and Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. The program commissions artists and designers to create murals for those ugly concrete barriers that often separate bike lanes from automobile traffic. The cost of all materials is covered, selected artists are also awarded a $2,000 honorarium for their work, and New York Cares volunteers assist the artists with their murals, which stay up for 11 months.

Want to give some New Yorkers a more colorful commute? Got an amazing mural idea in mind? If so, the open call deadline for Barrier Beautification proposals is February 24.

For inspiration, we've included some images of past Barrier Beautification murals after the jump. You can also check out more examples over on NYCDOT's Flickr archive and get all of the details in the program's application packet.

Tillary Street Barrier Art by Chris Beck and Tanya Albrightsen-Frable - Tillary Street north of Adams Street, Brooklyn

"Roots/Routes" by Julia Whitney Barnes - West 155th St between Edgecombe Ave and Harlem River Dr, Manhattan

"Reflecting Pond" by Corinne Ulmann - 97th and Centreville Streets, Queens

"Face to Face" by Debra Hampton - Furman St between Joralemon and Montague Sts, Brooklyn

"Antimacassars" by Jennifer Cecere - FDR Service Drive North between 35th and 37th Sts, Manhattan-- John Ruscher

Q&A // Artist Kate Neckel Conquers The Walls of NYC's Ace Hotel

Photo by Charlie Gross

Admittedly, we were a tad jealous when we learned of artist Kate Neckel and her being commissioned by NYC's Ace Hotel to literally draw all over one of the famed hotel's rooms. Flashbacks of parental scoldings shooting through our minds--the inevitable consequences of running through the house, taking creative license with our crayons and the living room wall. Our envy of Neckel only deepened when she was invited back to do it all over again, her drawings now becoming a permanent feature of the hotel.

We recently caught up with Neckel to talk inspiration (both musical and culinary) and the simple pleasures of taking a marker to a wall.

3W's Perrin Drumm: This is your second time drawing on the walls of the Ace Hotel. Did you have different goals this time around? 

Kate Neckel: When I worked on the first room I had notebooks filled with all things Ace: Stumptown coffee, Liberty Hall, every detail of the lobby, the Breslin--and I filled the wall from top to bottom. This time around, I wanted the piece to just flow like a conversation. I started in the middle of the wall because it felt right, and then I just hung out and moved from place to place on the wall.

PD: Do you have the wall worked out ahead of time? As in sketches you bring with you? Or is everything drawn spur of the moment?

KN: I checked into the hotel with some pretty vague sketches and ideas; mostly about music and patterns. I wanted this wall to just grow based on what happened during the weekend or things I found in the room. 

PD: From the photos it looks like it was mighty fun. Did anyone else get to partake with you?

KN: Patrick Phillips from the band Honduras dropped by with his girlfriend Emilie Laperriere. We ordered food from the Breslin, Pat played his guitar and I drew on the walls. Jác stopped on Sunday night and played a few songs (accordion, horn, guitar--oh yeah) while I put the finishing touches on the wall. Other friends included Jenna Menard, Michelle Buswell, Frederique Carme, and of course Tom, Brec and Maeve, my husband and kids, the most inspiring folks I know.

Hit the jump for photos of the process and more of our dialogue with Neckel.

PD: Your bio says "music makes my pen move around." What music soundtracked the drawing?

KN: We were taking requests. The Strokes, Tom Petty, Ben Kweller, Pavement, St. Vincent, The Rolling Stones Pandora station. Patrick Phillips played acoustic guitar, and, of course, Jác--quite a variety pack.

PD: What's going on in the pictures on your site of you drawing on people? (Photo below) Did you just run out of wall space?

KN: I've been drawing on people longer than walls. [Though] I would be a mess with a tattoo gun.

PD: You have a Master's in Drawing and Painting. Did you have to "prove" you could draw realistically before you honed in on your own style?

KN: When I applied to MICA for grad school, my portfolio was filled with photography, paintings and a few drawings. Nothing realistic. The program was multidisciplinary and I spent a lot of time chopping up skateboard decks and making mistakes. I loved it. In undergrad, the foundation classes drove me crazy. Draw a sailboat, draw a bottle, draw your hand, shade a cone with the light coming in from the right. I wasn't a big fan but they were good for me. 

PD: What have you got going on for upcoming projects--professional or personal?

KN: I'm finishing up a mural at Hudson Studios and I've just started taking photos of Patrick and his bandmates. I'm not sure what the piece will be but I think there will be drawings based on the photos and perhaps a video. I'm getting my drawings off the wall and onto sheets, fabrics and other cozy stuff. It's for an editorial spread in an Italian magazine...details to follow.

Meanwhile, check out a few shots of the Ace Hotel process, courtesy of Neckel:

Photo by Charlie Gross

Photo by Charlie Gross

Photo by Mark Andrew

-- Perrin Drumm

MIXED MEDIA OPPORTUNITY // NYCEDC Seeks Creative Proposals For Downtown Light Installation

A light installation under the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO - photo by Jules Antonio

Think you have an idea that could illuminate Lower Manhattan? The New York City Economic Development Corporation wants to hear it!

The organization, which promotes economic growth throughout the city, is calling for proposals "for the development and implementation of an innovative and engaging lighting and placemaking initiative aimed at increasing Lower Manhattan’s exposure, expanding its appeal in the evening hours, and spurring more diverse business activity by using the area's buildings and public spaces to create a strong neighborhood identifier visible to viewers from both near and far."

NYCEDC is looking for a proposal that embraces and enhances Lower Manhattan's identity as a vibrant, 24/7 community:

This project should occur on a regular basis (i.e., weekly, monthly) and be able to be implemented by the end of 2012, and ideally have a guaranteed life span of at least three years. The lighting project may include, and is not limited to, projection-mapping including 3D effects, interactive elements and opportunities for interaction, up/downlighting and pedestrian or kinetic motion-activated lighting.

The project is scheduled to kick off by the end of 2012 and will continue for at least three years. The selected team will receive up to $1 million from NYCEDC, along with other potential funding sources, to realize their proposal.

The deadline for submitting a proposal is February 13, 2012, and you can find out more information from the official press release as well as the project's procurement page.

-- John Ruscher

ESSENTIAL EVENT // Brooklyn Night Bazaar Returns With A Massive Three-Day Extravaganza Starting Thursday

All images © JDS.

Back in October we told you about the first Brooklyn Night Bazaar, which took over the Dekalb Market for a lively Sunday evening. Now the bazaar is returning to Brooklyn for an even bigger blowout. This Thursday, Friday and Saturday the bazaar will take over a 40,000 square foot warehouse along the Williamsburg waterfront to present more than 100 local vendors, art installations, three solid nights of live music and plenty of local beer and wine. And all of this goodness (except the ticketed music space) is free and open to the public.

Check out the long list of vendors that you'll find at the bazaar here. If you still need to grab some gifts following our Handmade Holiday Craft Fair this past weekend, here's your chance! Pick up a Playbutton, some regionally adapted seeds, a killer skateboard and much more. And of course there will be tons of delicious local food as well.

The music program will include a DJ set by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy on Thursday, an epic rock lineup featuring Fucked Up, DOM, Big Troubles and more on Friday and a double whammy with The Hold Steady and Titus Andronicus on Saturday. Grab tickets for those shows here.

The most exciting part of this edition of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, though, is where it'll take place. Renowned Danish architecture firm JDS have designed an incredible masterplan for the huge warehouse, drawing inspiration from Lars Von Trier's Dogville. Additionally, the folks behind Greenpoint's Bring To Light: Nuit Blanche festival will be curating an array of video installations and light projections.

Hit the jump to see renderings of JDS' Brooklyn Night Bazaar masterplan.

-- John Ruscher

L TRAIN NOTWORK // A Pirate WiFi Network For Your Morning Commute

If you're riding the L Train between 8am and 10am any day this week, you might want to whip out your smartphone or another device with wifi capabilities. During those hours, if you're riding between Morgan Avenue and 8th Avenue, you'll be able to connect to the "L Train Notwork," a pirate wi-fi intranet that's being hosted by the creative collective WeMakeCoolSh.it.

The Notwork will include a variety of different features and content, including a live chat room/dating site, curated content from local authors, poets and visual artists, news feeds from popular websites and "a few other surprises."

3rd Ward writing teacher Robin Grearson and her fellow 1441 member Dolan Morgan will be curating poetry and prose by local writers, with new pieces appearing on the Notwork Monday through Friday.

"We like to encourage strangers to talk to each other and this seemed like a great way to do it," say the Matthew McGregor-Mento and Mark Krawczuk of WeMakeCoolSh.it. "When people ride the train during rush hour they are forced to be so close to each other but they rarely interact with each other. We wanted to give people something to talk about."

WeMakeCoolSh.it didn't get any special permission for the project, as they won't be breaking any rules. The battery-powered webserves used to create the Notwork's wi-fi hotspots will be carried onto the train and never left unattended, and everyone involved will have project descriptions to hand out to anyone who is curious. They will also be making all of the project's code available on the open source site Github so that others can experiment with their own pirate networks.

--John Ruscher

OCCUPY ART // Occupy.Inside.Out Puts Faces With A Movement

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

Last week we relayed a call from Brooklyn photographer Steven Greaves and the folks at TED.com, who needed volunteers to help wheat paste Greaves' 99 portraits of everyday people involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement throughout Downtown Manhattan. The project, occupy.inside.out, was staged as part of photographer JR's global Inside Out endeavor.

We're happy to report that the wheat pasting was a massive success. Greaves sent along some photos of the portraits going up and told us more about the project. "We wanted to offer people a way to share their stories," he says. "The Occupy Wall Street movement has been portrayed as a mob of discontent. While there are definitely complaints, that's not the whole story. What we've experienced is much to the contrary: veterans, priests, doctors, lawyers and other everyday people who are more than just angry. These people work every day of their lives and are starting to become empowered to do something about the injustices that they see around them and in the system."

Check out photos of the occupy.inside.out wheat pasting after the jump.

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

-- John Ruscher

OCCUPY ART // Occupy Wall Street Art: From Shepard Fairey To Vampire Squids

Zuccotti Park has been the rallying point for the Occupy Wall Street protests here in NYC for the past month, but the movement's energy has traveled quickly, not just via the news and social media, but also through the increasing number of artists taking up the cause. For instance, Shepard Fairey designed the invitation for this past Saturday's Occupation Party, which asked people to congregate in Times Square for "music, performance and a message that the people of this country — not the banks, not the corporations — hold the true power." 

We heeded that call, heading up to the Great White Way with thousands of others. The music took the form of a brass playing amid the crowd and, later on, a massive sing-along to "This Little Light Of Mine." Performance came in all sorts, from the invitation's request that people where white as a symbol of hope, to someone posing as Lady Justice against, to blood-covered "corporate zombies" from NYC's annual Zombiecon.

Check out photos from The Occupation Party after the jump, along with a breakdown of some of our favorite Occupy Wall Street-related art.

"No Comment" - This exhibition of art inspired by Occupy Wall Street was staged in the belly of the beast, at 23 Wall Street, once the headquarters of banking giant J.P. Morgan.

OccupyWriters.com - This fast-growing collection of authors and writers who support Occupy Wall Street has published original works by a few of them, including the excellent "Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance."

Vampire Squid - Illustrator Molly Crabapple created this downloadable poster inspired by Matt Taibbi's description of Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" in a Rolling Stone article.

Adbusters Designs - The Canadian magazine that sparked Occupy Wall Street also has a nice collection of downloadable poster designs.

"What Does Occupy Wall Street Mean For Art?" - A Village Voice article by art critic Martha Schwendener that examines art's role at Zuccotti Park and the art world's complex relationship with wealth and social change.

And now for more Occupation Party photos:

-- John Ruscher

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY TODAY // Help Wheat Paste Portraits For Occupy.Inside.Out

Want to help the Occupy Wall Street cause and be part of an awesome art project at the same time? Brooklyn-based photographer Steven Greaves is looking for volunteers to help put up wheat paste portraits as part of his project Occupy.Inside.Out, which features 99 photos of everyday people and one representing the 1%.

The project has been getting a boost from the folks at TED.com. "They have been instrumental in providing logistical support and outreach to my team for getting this thing put together," says Greaves. The studio of photographer and TED Prize winner JR, has also been lending a hand by printing out the images. JR's team includes 3rd Ward alum Gina Pollack, who has been working on the broader global portrait project Inside Out.

If you'd like to help Greaves with wheat pasting, get in touch with him ASAP: steven@stevengreaves.com. His team plans to meet up at 6pm TODAY, location TDB.

-- John Ruscher

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT // Nick Kuszyk's Robots: From Street Art To Children's Books

If you walk around Williamsburg much, there's a good chance you've strolled passed Nick Kuszyk's robots. The Brooklyn-based artist has been painting them for over a decade, filling entire walls (and often more) with these brightly-colored mechanical creatures. Kuszyk's work hasn't just been limited to the streets. His canvases are equally awe-inspiring--his colorful robots can be found on album covers for the No BS Brass Band, decorating an arcade case for DIY video game makers Babycastles and even in a children's book named R Robot Saves Lunch, which Kuszyk wrote and illustrated.

We caught up with Kuszyk to ask him about his work. He enjoys the balance between doing large murals and smaller paintings. "Both help life in different ways," he says. As for his influences, he tells us that there are too many to list, but they include fifteenth century European painters Hieronymus Bosch and Jan van Eyck as well as modern geometric abstractionist Josef Albers.

How did he end up publishing a children's book? Kuszyk says it was a fluke. "The president of Penguin's kids books is into pilates, and my friend is a teacher [and] dropped my name," he explains. Chance or not, his skill and style have led to many other opportunities as well. Right now some of Kuszyk's work is being featured in an exhibit at Oklahoma City's Womb Gallery, where he got to work with The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, who co-owns the space; "[Coyne's] a sleeper visual artist and a generally inspiring person," Kuszyk says.

As of today, Kusyk's at work on another album cover, several commissions as well as a graphic novel.

We've got more of Kuszyk's work after the jump, so keep going--and keep your eyes peeled for his murals the next time you hit the streets.

-- John Ruscher